Jazz concerts are held every night except Sunday. The music starts at 21:30. Seating is is on a first-come-first-served basis, starting at 20:30. Reservations are kept until 21:15 (i.e., 15 minutes before the music starts). Tables for two are limited. All other tables are shared. Bookings by email (focan@nardisjazz.com) or telephone: +90 (212) 244 63 27,or WhatsApp +90 532 244 5778
Price: 800TL
John Shakespeare Dyson, Cornucopia's music critic, picks his highlights this month.
<
p>
Friday January 9
İpek Dinç Band
Singer İpek Dinç, a graduate of the İstanbul University Faculty of Chemistry, began her musical career in 2015. She first came to prominence when she won the Nardis Club’s competition for young jazz vocalists in 2009 and was subsequently invited to sing at the Nömme Jazz Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. Her repertoire consists of R&B as well as jazz standards, and she is to be accompanied on this occasion by Barış Doğukan Yazıcı (trumpet), Adem Gülşen (piano), Umut Oymak (bass guitar) and Erhan Seçkin (drums).
Saturday January 10
Dilek Sert Erdoğan Band
Dilek Sert Erdoğan, known as Turkey’s most powerful soul vocalist, has a voice that is described as ‘black satin’, her style being a mixture of jazz, soul, funk, blues and improvisation. Born in 1976, she graduated in English Language and Literature from İstanbul University. During her student years, she read the English news on the BBC Forex radio station, worked as Foreign News Coordinator for the ‘Kanal D’ TV channel, and prepared radio programmes for ‘Atlas’ magazine. She is also an actress. ‘Moments’, her first album (on which all the songs were written by the lady herself), was also the first original soul album in English to appear in Turkey. Released in 2013, it soon became the best-selling jazz album in the country. Accompanying her on January 10 will be Koray Üsgülen (Hammond organ), Sıtkı Sırtanadolu (guitar), Burak Atlı (bass guitar) and Berke Köymen (drums).
Wednesday January 14
Bulut Gülen Quartet
Trombone-player Bulut Gülen learnt his art at state conservatoires in Ankara and İstanbul. He then completed a Professional Music Diploma course at the Berklee College of Music in Boston; this was followed by postgraduate studies at the New England Conservatory. For many years he has been playing in concerts and at festivals in the USA, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Holland and the Balkans as well as in Turkey. Some of the well-known jazz clubs in which he has performed are Birdland, Jazz Gallery, National Sawdust and the Lincoln Jazz Center. He currently teaches in the jazz departments of the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire in Ankara and the Bahçeşehir University Conservatoire in İstanbul. ‘Su’, his first album, consisting of his own compositions, was released in 2015; ‘Bosphorus Train’, his second album, appeared in 2022. At the concert on January 14, the other members of his group will be Serkan Özyılmaz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
Saturday January 17
Sibel Köse Quintet
The inimitable Sibel Köse, dubbed ‘the Queen of European Jazz’, is a vocalist of outstanding talent. She began singing jazz while studying Architecture at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), Ankara; during this time, she performed with the legendary Turkish jazz pianist, saxophonist and composer Tuna Ötenel. She says she learned a lot from him, though he never gave her formal lessons. The second influence on her artistic development was Janusz Szprot, a Polish musician who came to Ankara in the 1990s to head up the Jazz Department of Bilkent University. He invited her to attend a summer school for jazz vocalists in his native country, and she received tuition there from Deborah Brown and Rachel Gould, two singers from the USA. A third major influencer, meanwhile, was the French trumpet-player, composer and arranger Jean-Loup Longnon; she has recently made recordings with his big band at the Studios Ferber in Paris.
Last time I saw Sibel perform at Nardis, I said the following in my blog: ‘Over the three-and-a-bit years since I last had the privilege of hearing her, nothing of her energy has been lost: if anything, her singing is more powerful than ever. She hits the high notes with tremendous force and faultless intonation; she improvises creatively with nonsense words even more frequently than before, fashioning them into meaningful episodes within the song as a whole; and her emotional range remains unrivalled within my experience of jazz singers. All this is mixed in with both a searing sincerity and a wry sense of humour. How could anyone fail to enjoy and appreciate her artistry?’
Accompanying her tonight will be Engin Recepoğulları (tenor saxophone), Kürşad Deniz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
Saturday January 24
Ece Göksu Quintet
Ece Göksu is one of Turkey’s up-and-coming jazz vocalists. A native of Ankara, she once sang in the Ankara State Opera and Ballet Children’s Chorus. After receiving training as a pianist at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire, in 2002 she moved to İstanbul, where she took further piano lessons at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatoire. It was while at university in Ankara that she began to take an interest in jazz, and formed her first group. In 2007 she won a Fulbright Scholarship to receive instruction as a jazz vocalist at William Paterson University in New Jersey, where she was taught by Nancy Marano, Cecil Bridgewater, Mulgrew Miller and others, meanwhile taking private lessons from Roberta Gambarini and Jay Clayton.
Göksu, who currently resides partly in New York and partly in İstanbul, has taken part in festivals in the United States, Budapest and Dubai as well as in Turkey. In 2014 ‘Slow, Hot Wind’, an album of jazz classics featuring her along with Neşet Ruacan and Volkan Hürsever, was released. Her album ‘Live in Assos’, meanwhile, appeared in March 2024.
Tonight she will be accompanied by Bulut Gülen (trombone), Serkan Özyılmaz (piano), Kağan Yıldız (double bass) and Berke Özgümüş (drums).
Thursday January 29
Flapper Swing
Flapper Swing is a ‘manouche’ (i.e., gypsy jazz) group in the tradition of the Belgian-Romani jazz guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt (1910-1953) and the American saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). It keeps alive the musical atmosphere of the roaring 1920s – ‘the times when jazz was still fun’. The group has five members: Nevin Hetmanek on vocals, Batu Şallıel on saxophone, Erhan Erbelger and Tomas Hetmanek on guitars, and Volkan Topakoğlu on double bass. (I believe Tomas Hetmanek hails from the Czech Republic.) They appear on stage in 1920s costume, but the audience is at liberty to dress as they will. I have fond memories of the times when Flapper Swing played in the street – at the Tünel end of İstiklal Caddesi. I always admired their blend of musical professionalism and good humour.
Saturday January 31
Evrim Özşuca Band
Evrim Özşuca, who has been active as a performer since 1993, studied the cello at Bilkent University, Ankara, before graduating from Bilgi University, İstanbul, as a jazz vocalist. In 2005 she won the Nardis Jazz Club’s Young Jazz Vocalists Competition and the International Young Jazz Vocalists Competition at the Nömme Jazz Festival in Estonia. As a result of this success, she was invited to sing at international jazz festivals in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. Following this, she gave concerts with jazz trumpeter Ted Curson (1935-2012) in New York and Paris, and featured on his album ‘In Paris – Live at the Sunside’. In 2008 she took part in Turkish pianist, composer and pedagogue Ali Perret’s ‘Atonal Standards’ project. Evrim Özşuca, who has been coaching jazz vocalists since 2003, has a style that includes elements of blues, R&B, soul and funk. She frequently performs with ‘Effective’, the group she formed at the end of 2009. On this occasion, she will be joined by Bulut Gülen (trombone), Önder Focan (guitar), Barış Öztürk (double bass) and Ayhan Öztoplu (drums).
Jazz vocalist Evrim Özşuca and her band come to Nardis on January 21
